Page 6 - bne_Magazine_October_2017

6 I The Month That Was bne October 2017
Politics
Central Europe
Poland dropped plans to feature depic- tions of the Ukrainian city of Lviv and Lithuanian capital Vilnius in the new passport design readied for next year to celebrate 100 years of Polish indepen- dence. The decision follows uproar in Lithuania and Ukraine, which said it was unacceptable for official documents of one state to carry depictions of monu- ments of neighbouring states.
Czech President Milos Zeman renewed his call for EU sanctions against Russia to be dropped dur- ing a meeting with his German coun- terpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Prague Castle. Steinmeier responded that such a move would only be pos- sible once real progress was made
in the peace process in Ukraine.
Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka on Septem- ber 4 agreed with Slovak counterpart Robert Fico to call a summit in Bratislava to debate the differing qualities of
food products in Eastern and Western Europe. “We do not want to eat and drink crap,” Fico bluntly commented, announcing the key meeting.
The Hungarian government suspend- ed its support for Romania’s OECD accession, after the Romanian authori- ties blocked plans to set up a Catholic high school in Romania’s Targu Mures, a town inhabited by a large number of ethnic Hungarians.
Southeast Europe
A deal for the supply of Russia’s advanced S-400 surface-to-air missile
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system to Turkey was signed, causing an uproar as the weapon is not “Nato compatible”. Turkey has been a member of Nato for five decades.
Romania appointed new ministers
of defence and economy. The mini- reshuffle took place after former defence minister Adrian Tutuianu resigned on September 5 amid a spat between the defence and finance ministries over the payment of military salaries.
Ramush Haradinaj took office as Kosovo’s new prime minister. One of Haradinaj’s first moves was to announce a new border commission to tackle the issue of the demarcation of Kosovo’s border with Montenegro.
The new Albanian government led by Prime Minister Edi Rama was sworn in at the parliament on September 13. Rama’s Socialists won the June 25 elec- tion with 74 seats, enough to form a new government without a coalition partner.
Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic’s brother was accused of making a death threat to journalist Vladimir Otasevic. Markovic responded by telling journalists' organisations not to "mess with his family” and claiming the accusations were part of a campaign by his political rivals ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
Paris threatened to restore its visa regime for Albanians to prevent Albanian criminal gangs from operat- ing in France. Last month, Dutch police asked their government to take the same step because of the growing problem of crimes committed by Albanian gangs.
Eastern Europe
Ukraine's prosecutor general said that former Odesa governor and ex- Georgian president Mikheil Saakash- vili will not be arrested for illegally entering Ukraine. Instead he had to pay a UAH340 (€110) fine. Saakashvili’s
bother David was arrested in Ukraine on cancelled residence permit grounds and faces likely deportation to Georgia.
Moscow is ready to back the possible deployment of United Nations peace- keepers in Ukraine, not only on the con- tact line between Ukraine's troops and pro-Moscow rebels, "but also in other places," Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Ukraine's state-owned gas monopo- list Naftogaz has launched a new $5bn claim against Russia in the Hague, claiming damages for assets it lost following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
A wave of bomb threats that has dis- turbed Russian cities this week caus- ing mass evacuations is ISIS-related, RIA Novosti claimed. Terror attacks have resumed in Russia following the start of its military campaign in Syria.
Eurasia
Addressing the UN General Assembly,
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian warned Yerevan may be set to declare two protocols aimed at normalising relations with Turkey "null and void". The Armenians want to see progress from Ankara in implementing the proto- cols signed in 2009.
The IMF is to delay disbursing bailout funds to Mongolia following parlia- ment’s vote to dismiss the PM and cabinet. The fund agreed $434mn as part of a larger $5.5bn IMF-led bail-
out to respond to the slump in growth brought on by the descent of commodity prices that has hurt the mining-depen- dent country.
The Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union and Mongolia may conclude a free trade zone agreement as early as 2018, Russian Natural Resources Minis- ter Sergey Donskoy said.